Lanersbach

Gary, here's the Pension http://www.alpengruss-tux.at/

If you go on Google Earth you can see its smack bang opposite the Eggalmbahnen gondola - skigear on, bacon sandwich in the top pocket, off we go!

15 more days work, and counting......

cheers Johnski, are you Driving from Insbruck or catching the train.
Also are you planning to put a review on your 3 day Expedition It would be appreciated as With my job I have occasional Long weekends and lm looking at this type of quick getaway Skitrip :thumbup:.

Gary, I think we're going to hire a car as public transport is hassle and takes ages and the taxi quotes we had were daft!

I'll file a report on my return!! (12 working days and counting...)

Cheers again mate I found the Hotel on web and Ill have a recce when Im there in March, look forward to your review and have a great time. If you can fit in Kaltenbach its on the Zillertal ski pass its worth a day out :thumbup: :)

Trip report as promised!

Pension Alpengruss, Lanersbach (Tux), 10 - 14 March 2010.

Travelled with Easyjet to Innsbruck, hired a car, 90 mins drive. Very easy and a cost effective way to do it. Infinitely better than flying to Munich.

Pension Alpengruss: Traditional Tirolean look and feel, great welcome and hospitality. Very clean, spacious room (probably 30m2 for 2 people), slightly pokey bathroom - shower only. Small but pleasant wellness area. What I'd expect from 3*. Food better than expected, 4 course served at the table. 30m from the Eggalmbahnen Gondola. Excellent value overall - we've booked for 19 of us next year!

Lanersbach: strung out along the road, but with a smaller centre off the main road with a church and some pretty chalets etc. Certainly no high rise or apartment blocks. We found a lovely old bar (can't remember the name) in the village and had a good apres ski with the Germans and Austrians. Not for the all-nighters, but no ghost town.

Ski day 1 - Eggalm: Bad weather, low cloud/light snow/flat light kept us to the local slopes. Excellent piste conditions with below zero temps and some fresh snow. There are only 21kms of piste on the Eggalm, but some lovely skiing, especially red 2/4, fast wide and down through the trees. A skiroute takes you either back 'home' or to Vorderlanersbach and the Rastkogelbahnen. A couple of lovely mountain restaurants, the aptly named Eggalm and the Voldersnest.

Ski day 2 - Rastkogel/Penken etc. Much improved weather, sun soon shifted early cloud to open up the magnificent views. We took the Rastkogelbahnen to link with the main Mayrhofen ski area. Some fun blues up on the Rastkogel then over to Penken for more challenge, including the infamous Harakiri (black 4), which with good snow and sun was not too tricky. The area felt much more like a 'big resort' with a lot of skiiers and even more of those strange sideways folk on their ironing boards (only kidding!!). Great range of pistes including some fun reds (5 and 27) and a thigh burning black (17). Restaurants bigger and not as nice as on Eggalm, but we still found a reasonable place - Kressbrunnalm - and had lunch in the sun! Getting back 'home' involved passing through the substantial (ironing)board park then up the big cable car. Which was nice. The skiroute back to Eggalm is a cracker, slightly wider than most and a really nice run through the trees with a perfectly positioned hut for a cheeky late afternoon drinkie on the way.

Ski day 3 - Hintertux: We took the 15 min bus ride up to Hintertux. Very extensive skiing on the glacier, once again cold but sunny. Perfect. There is a chain of 3 big gondolas to get to the top at 3200m and a few chairs and several T bars to get you round the 80+km of pistes. Some really wide flat slopes up here, perfect for long fast carving and the snow was uniformly excellent. Note that some of the red 'skiwegs' on the pistemap are un-pisted and quite tricky, e.g Red 13 - how apt! Red 2 from the mid station to the glacier base was great - see the video in another post. Overall the glacier area was much better than expected, although a little characterless as its all above the trees. Bit of a moonscape! Question here - there was a big flat area roped off, with a 'pistebully' going up and down almost like it was ploughing a field - why? (It didn't have its 'blade' down, so not making flat piste). Answers on a postcard....

Prices: Beer ranged from E2.90 - 3.30 for a half litre and lunch from 6ish for a Gulashsoup to perhaps 10 for a more substantial dish (8.50 for Tirolergrostl - yum!). We typically paid between 20 - 30 Euros for lunch for 2 with a salad and a couple of drinks. Schnaps after dinner was invariably supplied FOC by our amiable host Herbert!

Overall: Perfect for us (I know others have different criteria).
- Not overdeveloped (there are still chunks of mountain that could be dug up for more skiing, but haven't been; you sometimes ski past a small shed with cows (rather than bunk beds) in it etc).
- Ample, rather than extensive, amount of skiing (200+km) with good variation
- Correct prices - Austria does not rip off its visitors
- Traditional feel, cosy bars, yodelling music, any excuse for a schnaps!
- Not too many crowds/queues or super-rich English/Russian/French/German whatever show offs

Thats it!

Johnski96

Johnski glad you had a cool time a great report Ill drop over there next week for a viewas Im in MH. I like the info on TUX im a bit worried about the high temps over there at the moment so i think Ill have to ski up at higher altitude, Many Thanks again and viel erfolg (Good Luck)

Good review john, glad you liked it. Personally, I head over to Rastkogel and Eggalm for quieter slopes and better skiing when I am in Mayrhofen.
I agree re the prices over there, much more reasonable and reminds me to ask myself why I have been to France 3 times in the last year.....

johnski, black 17 is a weird run, not too steep till the bottom, but a very challenging camber!! I hear that the Hari Kari is no harder than black 17. In fact the website tells you so.